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Adult video platform PornHub has fallen victim to a security breach with sensitive data from its premium members stolen by an online extortion gang.
“A recent cybersecurity incident involving Mixpanel, a third-party data analytics provider, has impacted some Pornhub Premium users,” a security notice posted to the platform on December12 reads.
“It is important to note this was not a breach of Pornhub Premium’s systems. Passwords, payment details, and financial information remain secure and were not exposed.”
The platform says it has launched a comprehensive internal investigation and engaged with relevant authorities and with Mixpanel to “determine the nature and scope of the reported incident”.
Mixpanel says the data did not come from its breach.
An extortion demand sent to PornHub claims 94GB of data containing over 200 million records of personal information was stolen in the breach.
ShinyHunters, a black-hat criminal hacker group, have taken responsibility for the attack and extortion attempts, telling technology website BleepingComputer the data intercepted consists of 201,211,943 records of historical search, watch, and download activity from the platform’s premium members.
The data is understood to include email addresses, locations, video names, keywords associated with the videos, and whether the PornHub subscriber watched or downloaded a video or viewed a channel. ShinyHunters claim the breach also includes search histories.
The office for New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner has been approached for comment.
An extortion demand sent to PornHub claims 94GB of data containing over 200 million records of personal information was stolen in the breach. Photo / Getty Images
In general advice on their website they say if you have any evidence that your device or online account has been hacked (or otherwise accessed without your consent), this will mostly be a criminal matter and should be reported to the police.
However, instances of someone hacking your computer or smartphone, and using them to collect your information could also raise issues under the Privacy Act.
They would only be able to consider complaints which provide evidence showing what exactly has been collected, and by whom.
For guidance on how to deal with computer security issues, including issues with online accounts, contact Netsafe.
